a blog about family life, grief and rollercoasters and all the love stories woven in between

The LoveInk Story

When Ben and I were first married, we used to live and work up in the Whitsundays, on Hayman Island. Have you ever been there? It’s a magnificent part of the world.

We both had crazy jobs (him in IT, and me in Events) and were working ridiculous hours, but Ben knew that having a creative project on the side was really important to me, so he encouraged me to continue handmaking the greeting cards that I loved to create (even if it was at midnight after coming home from a long day at work!). Ben came up with the company name ‘Love Ink’ (which I thought was pretty awesome) and we ended up selling the cards at the Staff Corner Store and in the resort.

That feels like so many moons ago.

When I entered the realm of motherhood and, before too long, had three little boys under four years old, creativity took a BIG back seat in my life. I made do with writing the occasional blog post, taking photos of the boys and crafting sessions at home with the kids.

Creativity crept back into my life after Nicholas died and I used it as an outlet for my grief. I think experimenting with hand lettering and watercolours became my version of meditation.

After simmering ideas over the past few months and tinkering with the website, Ben gave me a gentle nudge that it was time to stop dreaming and start doing. So, ready or not, we pressed the go button.

It’s exciting to be able to share some of that creativity again and put extra love into the world through my new LoveInk shop.